Days of cat-and-mouse games are over for Styris

Chasing 209 for a win against England, New Zealand were 3/2 when Styris took guard. His unbeaten 80 saw them through. Another unbeaten 80 ensured that he hit the winning runs against the West Indies. Against Sri Lanka his 111 saw the Black Caps go from 4/2 to 219. His 56 against South Africa meant that it just boiled down to scoring a mere 20 runs after he was out. A modest outing against Bangladesh and the DNB in the scorecard against Ireland not only proves that Styris is a big-match player but also the fact that his average isn’t misleadingly bloated by runs in meaningless mis-matches.

While in the midst of being in such a streak, it is quite understandable that Styris, like the rest of the New Zealand players, is in an obliging mood as he tries his hand at interviewing his father for the SkySports camera. Mother Heather stands back with a smile as Scott pushes the microphone to Bernie. “So what are you doing here when the Aussies are playing Lanka at the stadium?” he asks.

The father talks about his interest in a certain New Zealand player and cites it as the reason for dropping in at the nets with a big tour group. With the recording on, there are muted giggles around when that ‘certain’ player asks the second question. “I heard most of the time you have been seen around at the stadium bar during the last game that Black Caps played?” The father is unfazed by the question as he replies: “The best view is from the bar, it’s directly over the pitch!”

Styris Senior’s light-hearted banter continues when one asks him about cricket being a family sport. “Not really, I just played some social cricket and that also only when the keg was there,” he says directing one to the mother for some serious answers. A local level netball player, the mother, too, smiles and informs that she is responsible for sporting genes of his famous sons. She also talks about his son’s early day heroes being Richard Hadlee and Martin Crowe and his highly competitive spirit. “Even while playing marbles, he would never like to lose,” she says. And that’s when one understands that giving up a World Cup game — even when the score board reads 3/2 or 4/2 — is out of question.

New Zealand team’s psychologist Gary Harmansson, who travels with the squad and has a close interaction with the players, emphasises the same point. “What they (the plyaers) are now is what they have been brought up to be. Styris must have been a bit of a fighter as a child and that’s what makes him the player that he is today. The thing is if you beat him he will resent it and he will use the same resentment to come back at you the next time he faces you,” he says. The psychologist goes on to add, “he doesn’t like to interact with me a lot as he generally has things worked out for him.”

Mother Heather reinforces this by saying, “Scottie was always stubborn when it came to winning.” The father quips, “That’s my contribution to him.”

And that also means a cue to the mandatory ‘cricket ball breaking things’ story. Bernie narrates how he would be sitting reading a newspaper and the ball through the window would knock it off from his hands, how the roof of their house bears several dents, how the lights in the porch needed constant replacement. “But it would always be the cat who did it,” he says revealing the excuse that little Scottie used to give. For Big Scottie, however, there are no more cat excuses; it’s always the bat now.